Cricket Again

In a move totally unanticipated by the New Zealand weather forecasting community, Sunday dawned cooller, cloudy and blustery – a clear contrast from the day before. By the time we set out for the Basin Reserve, however, the sun was beginning to break through the clouds. We weren’t in quite the same t-shirt – and – shorts order we’d been in for the Otago match, though.

A different day, and a very different match. Canterbury elected to bowl first, and Wellington struggled to make much impression in the first half, reaching 55/2 after 10 overs. Indeed, as the innings came to a close they’d only reached 107 with 3 overs remaining. At this point they decided to let rip and scored 11, 16 and 14 off the final 3 overs to finish on 148, so at least they’d posted a reasonably respectable target to beat.

Pollard scrambles to make his ground

At first, it looked like it would all be finished in a handful of overs, as Canterbury charged to 61/1 after 6 overs – a scoring rate of over 10 an over. But over the next 10 overs, Wellington pinned them back, and boundaries were few and far between. Meanwhile, they picked away at their wickets, so by the final 4 overs, Canterbury needed 34 off 24 balls. They kept trailing the required run rate until the penultimate over, when they hit a 6 and a 4, leaving them needing just 5 off the final over – the same situation Wellington had been in yesterday. Needless to say, 5 runs in an over is not a big ask in Twenty20, and they achieved it with 2 balls remaining.

Celebrating as another Canterbury wicket falls

Wellington are playing away in Nelson midweek, then back home next Sunday. Look out for the next exciting match report then!

In other news, England are 551/4 in Adelaide, where it’s now raining. This seems like a totally unfair tactic by Australia, who can normally be relied on to produce hot, dry weather for the Test series. Hopefully it’ll dry up overnight so that England can try to get everyone’s hopes up by scoring a win over Australia.